


Sometimes I'm Right

by suspiciousteapot



Category: Old Kingdom - Garth Nix
Genre: Gen, Sister-Sister Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-21
Updated: 2016-02-21
Packaged: 2018-05-22 09:03:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6073303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/suspiciousteapot/pseuds/suspiciousteapot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>queensabriel asked: " here's me being fic greedy: Sabriel & Lirael - 54. “You always say that, and you’re always wrong” "</p>
<p>[AU where Sabriel and Lirael knew about each other. Lirael stayed in the Glacier for half the year, because one last note from Arielle said she must grow up there, but the other half of the year was spent with her sister and her sister's husband]</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sometimes I'm Right

**Author's Note:**

> All characters and whatnot belong to Garth Nix  
> Comments are greatly appreciated! So if you read it and had a thought, or even just liked one particular line, drop down to the comment box and let me know :)

“I will be fine.” Sabriel assured her younger sister as she readied her paperwing.

  
“You always say that, and you’re always wrong!” Lirael argued. "She’s killed so many already, and you could die -”  
  
The Dog swiftly bit her in the shins. Sabriel - the only one besides her Charter-brother Touchstone, her cousins Ellimere and Sam, and Lirael herself to ever have seen the Dog - was nonplused by this somewhat brutal way of stopping Lirael from spiraling into despair.  
  
“Stop that, mistress. Your sister has come back from every mission."  
  
"Come back hurt." Lirael protested, though more calmly this time.  
  
Nobody could deny the validity of this claim. While her injuries were often minor, given the nature and magnitude of her work, Sabriel had returned more than once with severe gashes, burns and bites.  
  
“And besides, the letter said the masked necromancer wasn’t alone, that she came with a host of Dead, and potentially other - ”  
  
”You read my letter?” Sabriel’s cool voice betrayed a glint of anger.  
  
”Well...” Lirael let the waves of her hair cover her guilty expression, before suddenly straightening, bold and frustrated. “I had to! How would I know what book to look for if I hadn’t? _You_ won’t tell me.”  
  
Sabriel sighed and took her sister’s gloved hands in hers.  
  
”You know I would tell you if they mentioned a creature I did not know about, but necromancers aren’t your specialty, and Imishi swears she’s never come across any books telling of one who wears a mask.”  
  
Lirael made a mental note both to ask Imishi for all the books she’d read on necromancers, and to search the more hidden regions of the library for ones Imishi wouldn’t have known to look for.  
  
She exchanged a glance with the Dog, who smiled almost imperceptibly.  
  
But Sabriel’s quick eye caught the exchange. Focusing now on the mischievous canine, she raised an eyebrow.  
  
“I don’t suppose you, responsible hound that you are, would have helped my little sister find my letter, would you?”  
  
The Dog stretched and grinned at the Abhorsen. “I don’t suppose I did, if I am indeed responsible.”  
  
Sabriel knelt down so she was eye-level with the Dog.  
  
“This isn’t a game. A letter is one thing, but the Great Library has many dangers, and I’m sure you’ve already encountered a few, though you’ve only had a month to get yourselves into trouble. I swear to you, Dog, you get my sister hurt, or let her do so herself, and I _will_ make a carpet of you.”  
  
Lirael stood stock still, frozen by the sudden tension, and shocked by her sister’s ferocity. The Dog cocked her head to the side, before laving her tongue up Sabriel’s face, from chin to forehead.  
  
”She’ll be safe, or I’ll walk to the carpet-maker’s myself.” She replied, smiling as Sabriel spluttered and wiped her face with a handful of snow.  
  
Straightening, Sabriel dried her face with her sleeve. In two large strides, she reached Lirael and wrapped her in a tight hug, Lirael squeezing back as hard as she could.  
  
Sabriel gave a the Dog a quick scratch under the chin before turning back to the paperwing.  
  
As she settled in, a dread overtook Lirael once again.  
  
“Let me come with you, just this once,” she blurted.  
  
Sabriel’s eyebrows rose to alarming heights, but before she could argue, Lirael pressed on.  
  
“I'm ready, I swear! I've read all of the Book, and -"  
  
"No." Sabriel said tersely, though not unkindly. “You’re right in saying this mission is particularly dangerous, and for that reason alone I cannot take you. To risk us both at once would be folly.”  
  
”To risk us both by dying because you wouldn’t accept help would be folly!”  
  
Sabriel sighed and pressed her fingers to her forehead. “When I return, we’ll venture into Death again, and embark on the next stages of your training, but for now bringing you could be a greater risk than not, capable and smart as you are. Lirael, you realise I would have to watch out for you if I brought you, yes?”  
  
Hesitantly, Lirael nodded. She knew her sister would not be able to do anything _but_ look out for her, and she grudgingly began to see Sabriel’s point.  
  
As if reading her thoughts, Sabriel nodded. “Exactly. And if I must split my attention between the necromancer, her minions, and you, there is a greater chance I will miss a blow I would otherwise have stopped.”  
  
Lirael nodded again, defeated.  
  
”Lirael, read the Book again. You’ve seen what you needed to know before, but you made need other knowledge now. I expect to hear what’s changed when I return, alright?”  
  
That brought a smile to Lirael’s lips. She did like it when books yielded new things to her, and she loved sharing them with her sister.  
  
Sabriel pursed her lips to whistle, but broke off before the spell was complete. Turning back to Lirael, she looked somewhat sad, though it was hard to tell with the goggles.  
  
“The risk I may die is always present. It is one I accept when I take the title of Abhorsen. But that does not mean it will come to pass, and I don’t seek to hasten it. I will not be alone, and I will not be reckless. That is what I can promise you, little sister, and no more.”  
  
Her words troubled Lirael, but she knew she had to accept them. Her sister was right. It was an Abhorsen’s lot in life to have that life be constantly under threat. She’d known that for as long as she could remember, and she’d now worn out all arguments to the contrary.  
  
”Also know that I love you, to the Ninth Gate and beyond.”  
  
Lirael hurried forward to hug her sister for the last time in what could be months (she avoided the thought that it might be forever.)  
  
”To the Ninth Gate and beyond.”  
  
Now Sabriel’s spell rose and fell and rose again in a whirlwind of delicate marks, stirring life into the blue and silver paperwing, and inducing in Lirael the familiar sense of vertigo.  
  
The harsh wind whipped Lirael's hair around her face as she stared over the precipice of the paperwing pad to the bright expanse of ice far below, feeling her hopes shatter, even as her sister's paperwing rose.  
  
\--  
  
"Lirael!" It was Vancelle's voice. Knowing there were very few things directly communicated by the Chief Librarian, and knowing she certainly wasn’t calling her to the Nine Day Watch, Lirael sprang off her ladder excitedly.  
  
”Yes?” Lirael asked, rounding the bookshelf and almost colliding with Vancelle.  
  
”You’re wanted on the paperwing landing.” Vancelle confided, keeping her voice low.  
  
Lirael was out the doors before she could say anything else.  
  
A shadow detached itself from the wall as she ran to the stair that led up to the paperwing pad.  
  
”Is it her, do you know?” She asked, out of breath.  
  
"Well I don’t know, do I? I was in the kitchens, not on some cold landing, surveying the sky.” The Dog woofed back.  
  
”I _told_ you not to go down there during the day.” Lirael reprimanded, nearly tripping over one of the tall stairs as she took them two at a time. But she was too excited to be properly upset with her wayward friend.

“It’s got to be her. Unless it’s Touchstone, in which case... Dog, you don’t think something bad could have happened do you?” She asked, stopping abruptly. 

The Dog paced impatiently on the step above her.

“Well you won’t find out either way if you stay there dithering about it!”

Seeing the sense in her friend’s words, she bounded up the remaining stairs into the bright light of the icy landing, and was instantly met with a warm embrace.

She buried her face in the familiar inky black hair, hugging her sister back as hard as she could as the Dog bounded about woofing.

“Are you hurt? Did you banish the necromancer? Is everyone alright?” The questions came pouring out of her almost before her brain could formulate them.

Sabriel smiled, eyes sparkling despite the deep circles under her eyes. “I’m perfectly fine. Just tired. The necromancer is gone...” 

Lirael saw a flash of doubt sweep over her sister’s face, but chose to ignore it for the moment. Sabriel was alive and well, and that was all that mattered.

“The village is well on its way to recovering. What help they needed has been given, and the rest they are fit to do on their own.”

Sabriel grabbed a couple of packs from the paperwing, and Lirael rushed to follow suit. 

“Now, show me to the Refractory, will you? I’ve been flying for _hours_ and my stomach is about ready to devour me. And I haven’t forgotten you promised to tell me what new things the Book has revealed!”

**Author's Note:**

> I have no real reason to assume "brother-in-law" would be "Charter-brother" in the Old Kingdom, but I have a headcanon that marriages are done as a Charter ceremony in the OK, so Lirael's bonded to Touchstone via Touchstone's Charter-bond to Sabriel. Hence, Charter-brother.
> 
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
